No. 1 Huskies win 65th straight, beat Oklahoma

NORMAN, Okla.(AP) -- Oklahoma gave top-ranked Connecticut the kind
of second-half scare it rarely has gotten as its streaks toward
the history books.

Huskies coach Geno Auriemma wants to see more of it.

Tiffany Hayes scored 20 points, Maya Moore added 18 points and
10 rebounds and Connecticut trailed after halftime for only the
second time this season before pulling away to beat No. 11
Oklahoma 76-60 Monday night and extend its unbeaten streak to 65
straight games.

"The people out there that read our scores and watch us, they're
under this impression that we come out, we play and everybody
just says, 'OK, let's lose by 30 and then go home,"' Auriemma
said. "When other teams compete and the other teams play really
hard and they do what they're supposed to do and they're
well-coached like this team is, it's going to be a game."

"Not enough people do that against us. Yeah, we're really good
but when teams play us as hard as Oklahoma did tonight, the
scores will be what they are."

Making their last foray outside Big East play before the
postseason, the Huskies (26-0) trailed with 16 minutes to play -
the latest they've trailed this season - before Moore had six
points during a 13-2 response as UConn regained control.

"Inside of our minds, we still could have been so much more
relentless, so much more aggressive, just so much more of that
killer instinct, which is, I think, why we are who we are,"
Moore said. "That's why we can walk away from this game feeling
proud of ourselves but still not being satisfied.

"I think as long as we keep that feeling of not being satisfied,
on top of the way we practice, and just continuing to develop
that attitude, the sky will be the limit for us."

Oklahoma (18-7) rallied back from a 14-point, first-half deficit
and led by one on three occasions before Connecticut clamped
down and started forcing the Sooners to settle for jump shots.

Danielle Robinson scored 18 points to lead Oklahoma, and Amanda
Thompson added 16 points on 6-for-21 shooting and 13 rebounds.
The Sooners fell to 0-8 against Connecticut and 0-10 against No.
1 teams.

"We can compete with anyone on any given night. We can compete,"
coach Sherri Coale said. "You know, you can tell your kids that,
and it's another thing entirely for them to do it and to know
that from the experience of it. I know it's a loss, but I think
if anything, we build from this and go attack the rest of our
Big 12 Conference schedule."

The Sooners were trailing by three when they had to force shots
on back-to-back possessions with the shot clock running down,
and the Huskies didn't afford them any more opportunities. Coale
credited Auriemma with switching his defense to zone and then
back to man-to-man to get Oklahoma off-balance.

"I thought we stopped producing on the offensive end, and that
was the big difference," she said.

Tina Charles hit a foul line jumper, Caroline Doty nailed a
3-pointer from the left side and Moore connected on a jumper in
the lane after a scrum for an offensive rebound as Connecticut's
lead grew to 51-41 with 10:29 left. Oklahoma was still within 10
with under 6 minutes left before the Huskies inched away to win
by double digits as they have throughout their winning streak -
the second-longest in women's basketball history.

The Huskies have won all 20 of their games against ranked
opponents during the streak by an average of 26 points.

"We knew what we were capable of, and we came out and showed
that tonight," Robinson said. "I don't think the score is
representative of how we played, as tight as the game was. We
just didn't make some plays at the end, but I think we fought."

Charles had 19 points and nine rebounds and Kalana Greene had 14
points for UConn. Oklahoma, a 71 percent foul shooting team,
went 10-for-17 on free throws, with most of the misses coming
when the Huskies were well within reach.

"You can't miss easy shots against these guys. And we've been so
good from the free throw line," Coale said. I kind of think it
affected our confidence."

Connecticut got off to its usual fast start, opening its first
double-digit lead in the first 7 1/2 minutes and going up 26-12
when Greene got behind the defense for an easy layup with 8:39
left in the first half.

Coale called timeout immediately after that basket and deployed
a 2-3 zone that slowed a Huskies' offense that had been creating
layups with relative ease. She went to a 1-3-1 a few possessions
later and disrupted UConn even more, with Oklahoma scoring the
final eight points of the half to get within 32-30.

Thompson took an inbounds pass from Robinson right under the
basket and banked in a layup, then bounded the full length of
the court as though the Sooners had just won the game on a
buzzer-beater.

It was only the fourth time since the winning streak began that
an opponent was within two points of Connecticut at halftime.

Oklahoma went ahead for the first time on Thompson's jumper with
18:10 left in the game and Robinson was able to answer baskets
by Greene and Moore to put the Sooners up twice more. Greene
then scored off a baseline inbounds pass to put UConn back on
top 40-39 with 15:46 left, and the Huskies started pulling away
from there.